Thursday, November 10, 2005

Bucks Diary: Start Playing From Ahead

Bucks need to do this more often

The Bucks have had a spectacular and unexpected start to the 2005-06 season. But one trend bothers me. Whether at home or on the road, in every game the Bucks have dug themselves a double digit hole they then have had to dig out of. That's part of the reason I'm leery about all the goodwill that's been showered on the team lately. Championship teams don't have to rally from way behind night after night. They play from ahead. Until the Bucks show the capacity to do so, I think I will continue to be a little skeptical.

Feed the Post

The Bucks need to take advantage of the new talent they have acquired in the post. They can get easy baskets if they made a more concerted effort to run the offense through Bogut and Magliore. Both are more than capable of passing out of the post, so the looks will still be there for the three wing players. It would also relieve some pressure from TJ Ford. Teams have gotten the memo; they're starting to gear their defenses toward stopping him. There are consequences for such a strategy, and the Bucks need to take advantage of them.

Strange Loss

The Bucks loss to Golden State had a somewhat flukish quality. The Bucks outrebounded the Warriors, they produced more assists than the Warriors, and they had more steals. These are the statistics they flash at the Bradley Center on the "Hustle Board". They do that because generally the team that wins the hustle points wins the game. Not so on Tuesday. Which leads to my last musing.

Free Throw Disparity

The Bucks are not getting to foul line enough, which indicates they may be settling for too many jump shots. Teams that live and die by the jump shot are teams that don't advance very far in the play-offs. I said in my initial post on this blog that the lack of a so-called "slasher" troubled me. This is one of the areas where such a shortcoming really shows up. The Bucks need to attack the basket and get to the line. That's where the game was lost on Tuesday, plain and simple. The Warriors had more free throws made than the Bucks had attempted. That can't happen.